By Tony Attwood
Football journalists can be called many things including lazy and bonkers, but little of their daily activity is quite so bizarre as the range of players that they cite each season as coming to Arsenal in the summer.
Normally the number reaches over 100, and generally about two of those tipped actually turn up.
As things stand the window is not open yet, the season is still running and 52 players have already been tipped as coming our way this summer.
Last season in looking at the list of journalistic tips, we added something new to our annual review – details of what actually happened to the 134 players said to be coming our way. If you would like a laugh you can have a look at who was tipped and where (if anywhere) they went in this article from last year.
So now here is our chart of the players we have found to be tipped for this summer, plus the list of the 21 players who are said to be leaving. But if you get that far down the page you might like to take a seat first before you read about Martinelli.
Part 1: The players Arsenal are planning to buy.
| No | Player | Source | Club | Notes |
| 1 | Tammy Abraham | TBR | Roma | Forward |
| 2 | Kerem Akturkoglu | TeamTalk | Galatasaray. | Forward |
| 3 | Houssem Aouar | Football 365 | Lyon | Attacking midfield |
| 4 | Ronald Araujo | Express | Barcelona | Defender |
| 5 | Yves Bissouma | HITC, 90 Min | Brighton | Midfield. Requested a transfer. Liverpool want him |
| 6 | Armando Broja | Mirror, Caught Offside | Chelsea (loan at Southampton) | Forward |
| Update | Dominic Calvert-Lewin | Express, Mirror, Mail, F365, Caught Offside, TeamTalk | Everton | Forward; Everton now ready to sell. WHU want him. AFC cooling (Football Insider) TT says AFC not interested |
| 8 | Reyes Cleary | Foot365, Canon. | WBA | 17 year old forward |
| 9 | Phillipe Coutinho | Mirror, Give Me Sport, Sport Witness, TBR | Aston Villa | £33.57m. £337m release clause (TBR) |
| 10 | Danilo | Teamtalk | Leeds | Defensive midfield |
| 11 | Jonathan David | Express, Mirror, Foot365, PBR, FoLo | Lille | Forward; agent confirms he’s leaving. It’s on; Edu met agent |
| NEW | Memphis Depay | TBR | Barcelona | Forward |
| 13 | Sergino Dest | Football London | Barcelona | Full back |
| 14 | Paulo Dybala | HITC: Totts want him also. Football London | Juventus | Forward available on a free. Talks ongoing (FoLo) |
| 15 | Joao Felix | Football London, Daily Canon, HITC | Atletico Madrid | Replacement for Lacazette |
| 16 | Cody Gakpo | Sport Witness, Star, Bavarian Football, HITC | PSV | Winger. AFC favourites to get him |
| NEW | Arda Guler | Mirror, Sport Witness, Ozil says he’s world class (HITC) | Fenerbahce | Midfield. Liverpool and Bayern interested |
| 18 | Erling Haaland | HITC, Sky, Express | Borussia Dortmund | Age 21. £250m |
| Update | Eden Hazard | HITC, AS, Mirror | Real Madrid | £33.5m; meetings being held (Mirror) |
| 20 | Alexander Isak | Express, Mirror, | Real Sociedad | Forward, £75 release clause |
| 21 | Khvicha Kvaratskhelia | Hard Tackle | Dinamo Batumi on leave from Rubin Kazan | Napoli also interested |
| 22 | Luka Jovic | Football.London | Real Madrid | Everton, AC Milan and Borussia Dortmund |
| 23 | Noa Lang | Hard Tackle; Team Talk | Club Brugge | Liverpool and Milan also want him. Seen as replacement for Pepe but player fancies Milan. £25m |
| 24 | Robert Lewandowski | Express | Bayern Munich | Striker |
| 25 | Jesper Lindstrom | HITC | Eintracht Frankfurt | Attacking midfield |
| NEW | James Maddison | Sport Review | Leicester | Midfield. Totts also interested but Maddison wants to play in team with Saka (Mirror) |
| 27 | Lautaro Martinez | Caught Offside | Inter Milan | Forward. WHU interested |
| NEW | Alvaro Morata | Sport Witness | Juventus | Striker – transfer looking very likely |
| 28 | Cristhian Mosquera | Express | Valencia | 17 year old centre back |
| NEW | Neto | TBR, Sport | Barcelona | Part of swap for Gabriel |
| NEW | Ruben Neves | Express. WW wanted £100m | Wolverhampton | Man U interested |
| Update | Darwin Nunez | Mirror, Standard, Express 442, TBR, F365, Football London, Caught Offside, Sky Sports, Mirror: “AFC have let him slip through their grasp – he’s going to Man U | Benfica. £67m | Forward. Transfer in progress. At Madrid no longer interested. AFC in the lead (Express). Main target (FoLo), AFC need him (Mirror). AFC now in the lead |
| 32 | Lucas Paqueta | Hard Tackle | Lyon | PSG, At Madrid also want him |
| 33 | Yeremy Pino | HITC | Villarreal | Release clause worth €80m. Forward |
| 34 | Paul Pogba | Football.London | Man U | Contract talks broken down. AFC to blow other clubs out of the water |
| 35 | Michael Olise | HITC | Crystal Palace | £24m |
| 36 | Victor Osimhen | HITC, Corriere dello Sport, Mirror, Express | Napoli | £84m centre forward. AFC “extensively scouting” him |
| 37 | Raphinha | Football London | Leeds | If Leeds relegated he’s available for £25m. Left footed winger |
| 38 | Marcus Rashford | 90 Min, HITC, TalkSport, Daily Cannon, Express, Sport Review, TBR | Man U | Forward; Keene warns AFC against buying him. Totts could hi-jack deal. “Suprise swoop” (Sp Rev) AFC want him. |
| 39 | Sergi Roberto | Football London | Barcelona | Right back. At Madrid no longer interested |
| NEW | Fabian Ruiz | TBR | Napoli | Midfield; swap for Gabriel |
| 41 | Allan Saint-Maximin | Football London | Newcastle | Winger. Leno going in part exchange |
| Update | Renato Sanches | Sun, Mirror, Sports Mole, HITC | Lille | Midfield. Juventus want him but can’t afford him |
| NEW | Gianluca Scamacca | HITC “Arsenal will not take ‘no’ for an answer” | Sassuolo | No 9. |
| 44 | Djed Spence | Hard Tackle | Middlesbrough on loan at Forest | Right back |
| 45 | Raheem Stirling | HITC | Man City | Available for £80m |
| 46 | Youri Tielemans | Star | Leicester | Man U also interested, Midfield |
| 47 | Raul de Tomas | Star, HITC | Espanyol | “Being watched” Wright things he’s unbelievable. |
| 48 | Lesley Ugochukwu | HITC | Rennes | 2nd Patrick Vieira. AFC convinced of signing |
| 49 | Jesus Vazquez | Express | Valencia | Left back |
| 50 | Dusan Vlahovic | F365 | Juventus | Serbian Striker |
| 51 | Wilfried Zaha | TBR | Crystal Palace | He’s been in each of the last 3 summer transfer rumours |
| 52 | Cristian Zavala | Colo Colo | Player says “my dream transfer” | Midfielder, hasn’t actually played for Colo Colo yet! |
Part 2: The players who are planning to say farewell.
HITC: Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal are unlikely to block Kieran Tierney from leaving for Real Madrid if the price is right, according to The Sunday Post.
The report has claimed that Spanish and European giants Madrid are planning on making a bid of £50 million for the former Celtic left-back. Although that was before his latest injury.
| No | Player | Source | Club | Notes |
| 1 | Dan Ballard | News at Den | Millwall | Loan |
| Update | Hector Bellerin | Team Talk | Real Betis | Free Agent |
| 3 | Mohamed Elneny | Free Agent | ||
| 4 | Matteo Guendouzi | Team Talk | Marseille | Loan made permanent |
| 5 | Rob Holding | Mirror | Open to offers | |
| 6 | Alex Lacazette | Free Agent | ||
| 7 | Bernd Leno | Team Talk | Newcastle | Mirror |
| 8 | Ainsley Maitland-Niles | Team Talk | On offer for £10m | |
| NEW | Gabriel Magalhaes | TBR, Sport | Barcelona | Barcea offering swap deal |
| Update | Pablo Mari | Team Talk, Metro | Leaving if Saliba joins first team, player says he does not want to return | |
| 11 | Gabriel Martinelli | Sports Review | Liverpool | Klopp expressing admiration |
| 12 | Konstantinos Mavropanos | TeamTalk, HITC | Stuttgart | Loan made permanent. He’s been excellent this year. |
| 13 | Eddie Nketiah | Evening Standard | Crystal Palace | Free Agent |
| Update | Nicolas Pepe | Mirror | Club happy to lose him for £44m or even £25m (CalcioMercato) | |
| 15 | Alex Runarsson | Team Talk | HITC says he stays | |
| 16 | William Saliba | Caught Offside | Marseille | Happy to stay at the club |
| 17 | Cedric Soares | Team Talk | ||
| 18 | Kieran Tierney | Mirror | Real Mad | £50m |
| 19 | Lucas Torreira | Team Talk | Fiorentina | |
| 20 | Auston Trusty | Team Talk | ||
| 21 | Granit Xhaka | Team Talk, Just Arsenal | Roma | But may stay – Roma not willing to meet price |
We’ll do another update in a few days time.
Only a few weeks to go before we can get all that tedious football out of the way and really get stuck into what matters, the summer transfer window, I’m already on edge thinking about it….
on loan, at the moment, we have:
???
bellerin-saliba-mavropanos-mniles
torreira-guendouzi
???-???-nelson
balogun
straight out of colney, we’ll have: norton-cuffy – (salah-eddine) m’hand – patino – azeez – hutchinson – biereth – flores – cozier-duberry – henry-francis, etc. (cottrell’s been hit hard by injuries, but i, for one, like him a lot)
if we are to spend spend spend in the summer, the recruits will all be upgrades on the lads above, won’t they?
welll … good luck with that
(hi, kev, very nice to read from you again)
Shouldn’t Saka be in the ‘leaving’ list as it now appears we could be missing out on Champions League participation which (if rumours are to be believed) the media say is a condition of Saka signing a new contract and instead departing London to play in scouseland with Martinelli for his big admirer Klopp.